Former New Zealand cricketer James Franklin will be joining the Sunrisers Hyderabad as the bowling coach for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. As per the reports in ESPNCricinfo, the Kiwi great will be replacing Dale Steyn in the role.
Dale Steyn reportedly has been pulled out of the IPL 2024 due to personal reasons and will be back with the franchise next year. The former fast bowler joined the team in 2022 as a bowling coach and played a huge role in nurturing young fast bowlers Umran Malik, Kartik Tyagi, and others.
James Franklin, who played for Mumbai Indians in 2011 and 2012, will be joining the team soon. This will be his first stint in the league as a coach and he would want to make it big. Recently reports suggested that head coach Daniel Vettori was looking for a possible candidate in place of Dale Steyn.
And it’s no surprise that Vettori got his former New Zealand teammate onboard. The duo has worked together at Middlesex (county cricket) as well as Birmingham Phoenix (the Hundred). The former New Zealand pacer also served as the head coach of the Durham and is currently assistant coach at Islamabad United in the ongoing PSL.
James Franklin will be coaching the seasoned bowling lineup of SRH. The franchise has the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pat Cummins, Marco Jansen, Umran Malik, T Natarajan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Jaydev Unadkat, and the uncapped Indian Akash Singh. Wanindu Hasaranga, Washington Sundar and Shahbaz Ahmed are spinners in the team.
James Franklin will be having a lot of work to do with the Sunrisers Hyderabad. The team has struggled to get going in the last two seasons. They finished eighth in 2022 and were tenth last year. The management too is not getting consistent runs as Tom Moody was replaced last year by former West Indies captain Brian Lara, who was dropped after just one season.
James Franklin would be aware of this fact and would want to make an impact on the team in the upcoming season. Sunrisers Hyderabad have got good players this time around and it won’t be a surprise if they end up winning their second title in the league.
Sunrisers Hyderabad likely to name Pat Cummins as captain for IPL 2024
Apart from roping in James Franklin as bowling coach, there have been few reports which suggested that Sunrisers Hyderabad will be naming Pat Cummins as the captain of the team. The franchise is likely to sack Aiden Markram, who captained the team for two seasons.
Pat Cummins was brought by Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 20.5 crore in the last auction, which took place in Dubai. The fast bowler has been extremely successful as the leader of the Australian team and won the Cricketer of the Year 2023 due to his leadership prowess.
Pat Cummins won the World Test Championship (WTC) and ICC World Cup 2023 as a captain and him getting the leadership of Sunrisers Hyderabad was only a matter of time. It remains to be seen how will he fare as a leader in IPL.
